Spring Arena

Sunday, 1 July 2018

Worried by the spate of killing of their kinsmen by suspected herdsmen, major stakeholders that is widely speculated to be the worst hit that cut across specific delineation of plateau and Benue state have dragged the federal government to the international court of justice in Hague, Switzerland

Leaders of the identified states’ ethnic nationalities from states and members of professional bodies such as the Nigeria Bar Association have either forwarded petitions to the court or are still in the process of collating relevant documents and other evidence to accompany their petitions over an alleged act of genocides against indigenes of the two states.

Close to 200 persons were killed by suspected herdsmen about two weeks ago in parts of Plateau State with the attendant outrage within and outside the country.

Irked by the persistent killings in four local government areas of Plateau State, an umbrella body of all the ethnic nationalities in the state, Plateau Initiative for Development and Advancement of the Natives (PIDAN) said it had sent a petition to the ICJ over the alleged killings of the natives.

Similarly, the Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation announced its plan to forward a separate petition detailing the killings in the state.

The chairman of PIDAN Dr Madaki Aboi in a statement made available to journalists said; the North Central Youths Assembly and others had sent their petitions to the ICJ and the United Nations on the gruesome killings in Plateau State.

“We want the ICJ to intervene because of the excessive killings in Plateau and continuous injustice against our people. An injustice to one tribe is an injustice to the entire Plateau State. We are calling on the ICJ to ensure that justice is done on the Plateau; the killings are too much,” he said

Dr Aboi, who called for an overhaul of the nation’s security architecture, stated that if Amnesty International could posit that the attackers operated for seven hours last week Saturday without intervention from the security agencies then there was the need for total overhauling.

On the number of displaced people over the recent killings, Dr Aboi said in Barakin-Ladi and Riyom local governments alone, 13,000 persons were displaced while 11,164 were also displaced from other affected local governments adding that the displaced people were in 10 different IDP camps across the state.